


and time will tick 'til you can see

by likewinning



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-23 22:16:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7481991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likewinning/pseuds/likewinning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You can say it, kid," Jason says. "I've heard 'em all."</p>
            </blockquote>





	and time will tick 'til you can see

Jason's the only one home at Bruce's house when the phone rings. He doesn't like being here by himself; the place still creeps him out sometimes, and if Alfred's around he spends the whole time trying to feed Jason. But he got off work early today so he could be here for this dinner party thing Bruce invited him to, so he's reading in Bruce's study and doesn't even think about it before he picks up the phone.

"Hello?" he asks, and then winces. Alfred probably has like, a script for his shit.

"Mr. Wayne?" a woman's voice asks. Jason thinks she sounds vaguely familiar.

"Um," Jason says. "No, Bruce is still at the office. I'm his…" It still feels weird saying _boyfriend_ sometimes.

"Oh," the woman says. "This must be Jason. We met at the last school fundraiser."

"Right," Jason says. "Look, um -"

"This Greta Warner, I'm the principal over at your stepson's school."

Jason swallows. "Is - is everything okay?"

"Oh, yes." Principal Warner sighs. "It seems Damian got into an altercation with one of the other students this afternoon. I wasn't aware Damian is so… proficient in the martial arts."

Jason knows he shouldn't laugh. "Yeah, that's his mother's influence. _I_ would've had him take tap. Have you seen his feet move?"

Principal Warner makes a noise like she starts to laugh, but stifles it. "Look, Jason, I'm afraid we'll need you to come pick Damian up. If he'd but apologize to the other boy, this wouldn't be necessary, but I'm afraid he's adamant…"

"Yeah," Jason says. "That sounds like Damian." He checks his phone for the time, shoots off a quick text to Bruce to call him when he can. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

 

*

 

"So," Jason starts as soon as he gets Damian in the car. Damian slams the door, shoves his feet up on the dash and folds his arms. "You're _not_ my father," Damian says.

"No," Jason agrees. "And I'm sure if Alfred had picked you up, he'd find a nice way of telling you to get your fucking feet off the dashboard. But he's not. So."

Damian scowls and drops his feet back down to the floor. Jason starts the car, and they don't talk, but a few minutes later they pull into the parking lot of a diner.

"What's this?" Damian asks.

"It's called a diner, kiddo," Jason says. "Us plebeians go there to eat greasy food sometimes."

"Hn," Damian says. "No thank you."

Jason shrugs. "You're missing out. Dickie used to take me here all the time when I had a bad day."

"I'm not having -" Damian scowls. "Fine," he says. "We'll go. But they'd better have tofu."

 

*

 

They don't have tofu, but they do have an enormous hot fudge sundae, which Damian mows down almost like a normal kid. Jason keeps up the chatter, telling Damian about how in _that_ booth he scratched his and Dick's names one time, and how over at _that_ table, Roy passed out drunk so hard he busted his forehead open. "And this one time -"

"It was about you," Damian says.

"What's that?" Jason asks.

Damian wipes at his face with his napkin. The fact that it's made of _paper_ seemed to deeply offended him at first. "The fight. One of the… the _idiots_ at school asked me about you. If because you and father are homosexual, if that meant I was a - " Damian makes a face.

"You can say it, kid," Jason says. "I've heard 'em all."

"No," Damian says. "It's a disgusting word. So I hit him. Maybe harder than I meant to, but - I won't apologize."

"You shouldn't have to," Jason says. His face feels warm. He never expected Damian to talk to him, much less - "But you also… This is going to happen, Damian. And if you want me to stop coming to things, if -"

"No," Damian says. Too quickly, if the way he blushes is any indication. "I - my mother…" Jason grips his fork a _little_ too hard. "I know you're not - her, or my father. But I…" Damian takes a breath, lifts his head up and says, "I suppose you make Father happy."

Jason grins. "Uh-huh," he says. "And that's all there is to it."

Damian snorts. " _Ob_ viously."

"And the fact that I help him spoil you rotten?"

"Is a bonus, certainly," Damian says. He finishes the last of the ice cream, asks, "Where are we at on the dog?"

Jason shakes his head. "He's not budging yet. Keep those fish alive a bit longer, though, and maybe we'll get some movement."

"We _should_ have started larger," Damian says. "Asked for an elephant."

"Dickie had an elephant growing up," Jason says. "He's still got pictures. You should ask him to see them sometime."

Damian turns bright red. Jason feels for this kid, he really does.

"So," Jason says when they get back in the car and Damian's finished his diatribe about the number of soda cans and cigarette packs littering the floor. "You really don't mind me being around? Coming to school stuff with the blue hair and you know… half your dad's age?"

Damian's quiet for a minute. They turn onto the expressway back toward the house, and then he says, "You don't know how quiet Father used to be. I never knew - he never used to laugh. I'd cause trouble just for _some_ sort of reaction."

"The shoplifting," Jason says.

"Yes," Damian says.

"Aw, kiddo," Jason says. He reaches over to ruffle Damian's hair, and Damian bats him away. "You're a matchmaker."

Damian leans forward to turn down the _infernal music_ blaring out of Jason's stereo.

 

*

 

"So," Jason says back home hours later when he's helping Bruce take off his tie. Bruce always gets the damn thing tangled and then starts muttering about glorified nooses and it's really just easier if Jason takes care of it.

"So," Bruce says. He lets Jason put his jacket away, but when he starts on the trousers he gets impatient and just sets Jason bodily on the bed.

"Bruce," Jason says when Bruce starts kissing his neck. "Those are gonna wrinkle."

"So?" Bruce asks.

"So Alfred's gonna _sigh_ at you."

Bruce bites his earlobe. "Alfred's been sighing at me my whole life. Remind me to tell you about the time I crashed the Rolls into the pool."

Jason snorts. "Fucking spoiled brat."

"Indeed," Bruce agrees. He gets Jason's shirt and trousers off, strips them down until they're nothing but skin.

"Speaking of brats though," Jason says. He runs his fingers over the bits of gray at Bruce's temples. Bruce teased him, the last time they dyed _Jason's_ hair, that maybe he'd take up a matching blue. Jason made him swear he wouldn't touch the grey.

"Yes?" Bruce asks.

"I, uh," Jason says. "I didn't know I was on the emergency contact list."

Bruce's eyes widen, but he doesn't tense up like he used to just at the mention of looking after Damian. "Did something happen?" he asks.

"Just a fight," Jason says. "Damian wouldn't apologize for it, so they sent him home."

"That does sound like him," Bruce agrees.

"Maybe," Jason says. "But he had his reasons. I'll take care of it."

Bruce looks him over for a long minute before he kisses him, long and deep. Jason tastes the wine they had at dinner, the cake they shared at dessert. "What was that for?" Jason asks.

"Nothing," Bruce says, but he has that happy, dopey look on his face like when he's deep inside Jason, like he will be any minute now. "You know I - thank you."

"Uh-huh," Jason says, and then lays back, arches up into Bruce so their dicks brush together. "Now come on. PTA mom has to help with inventory tomorrow, so you'd better fuck me _good_ before then."

Bruce laughs, warm and happy, and he licks his way inside Jason, fucks him until the bedframe rattles and Jason's nails tear Bruce's skin. 

"So," Jason says later on, when they're both sweating and panting and Bruce is tracing one of the tattoos. "What do you think about getting a dog?"

Bruce's hand stills. He rolls over and pretends to snore. Jason guesses he'll try again another time.


End file.
